Thursday, April 23, 2009

Good day, Sunny Day

It's half past four and it's still beautiful and sunny out. What a great day. The morning was spent tutoring in the detention center and it was the 2nd time I had two students. Boy is that a learning experience for me but it's worked out so far. My one student is a much better reader and when I was working with the newer student I was able to give my original one a reader to read. That was just perfect and while I expected him to read just the first story, he just went ahead and read the whole book. I think for the most part he can grasp the whole story even tho he might make a mistake on a couple of words. We all do that I think, and just skip over a word we might not really be sure of.

Student #1 finished the first reading book and tested out into book #2. While his original evaluation placed him on this very basic level but I know it really didn't please him. That's a hard thing to work with for me, when the student feels he knows more than he does. If they get bored, then not a lot happens, but if they are having too much of a struggle then they just don't want to come to these sessions.

I give these men a lot of credit because they get no 'time off' credit for these tutoring sessions. Once they get to GED or HS courses, time spent in those classes does count for time off their sentence. This is also a detention center, not a jail so the men are transient for the most part. Some however are 'frequent flyers', meaning that this time in the detention center is not their first. :-(

But on days like this I always count my blessings. The class ends and I leave and have a chance to be outside and experience this gorgeous sunny day. It's a good reminder to me about the consequences of choices.